Anthropic has officially rolled out Claude Sonnet 4.6 inside GitHub Copilot, expanding the range of AI models available to developers. GitHub began the rollout on February 17, 2026, and access is arriving gradually across supported platforms.
Anthropic positions Claude Sonnet 4.6 as its most capable Sonnet model so far. Early testing shows clear gains in agentic coding tasks, especially when the model needs to search large codebases, reason across files, and complete multi-step development workflows.
What Makes Claude Sonnet 4.6 Different
Claude Sonnet 4.6 focuses on agent-style development rather than single prompt responses. The model handles context more reliably and executes chained actions with fewer interruptions.
Key improvements include:
- Better navigation of large and complex repositories
- Stronger search and retrieval of relevant code context
- More consistent multi-step task execution
- Improved reliability during long coding sessions
These upgrades make the model well suited for refactoring, feature implementation, and codebase exploration.
Where You Can Use Claude Sonnet 4.6
Developers can select Claude Sonnet 4.6 directly from the model picker in multiple Copilot environments, once rollout reaches their account .
Supported locations include:
- Visual Studio Code (chat, ask, edit, and agent modes)
- Visual Studio (agent and ask modes)
- GitHub.com
- GitHub Mobile on iOS and Android
- GitHub Copilot CLI
- GitHub Copilot Coding Agent
The experience stays consistent across platforms, allowing developers to switch workflows without losing model access.
Availability and Plans
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is available to the following Copilot subscribers :
- Copilot Pro
- Copilot Pro+
- Copilot Business
- Copilot Enterprise
Free-tier users do not receive access to this model at launch.
Pricing and Request Limits
GitHub is launching Claude Sonnet 4.6 with a 1× premium request multiplier. This means each use consumes premium requests at a standard rate, not an inflated one. GitHub has clarified that pricing remains tentative and may change as usage patterns become clearer.
Pro and Pro+ users can purchase additional premium requests if they exceed monthly limits.
Admin Controls for Business and Enterprise
For Business and Enterprise plans, administrators must manually enable Claude Sonnet 4.6 before teams can use it. The toggle appears in Copilot policy settings, and access does not activate automatically .
This requirement gives organizations control over model usage, cost management, and compliance.
As more third-party AI models enter Copilot, competition between coding assistants will intensify. For developers, that competition translates into better tools, stronger performance, and more choice inside everyday workflows.
